Concord: A longtime vice president of the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests will retire in November. Paul Doscher, vice president of land conservation, will step down as of Nov. 15, 2013, after a 27-year career at the statewide land trust.
Doscher will continue to be involved in the Forest Society’s efforts in a part-time role as a senior advisor. He also plans to spend more time working on his Christmas tree farm in Weare, traveling, and volunteering. A long-time Trout Unlimited volunteer, he was recently awarded the Ray Mortensen Award for Volunteer Leadership by that national organization.
“Paul has left his mark on both the Forest Society and the State of New Hampshire and both are the better for his work,” said President/Forester Jane Difley in announcing the transition. “Land conservation in the Granite State owes much to Paul’s efforts, not only because of the projects he’s facilitated, but also because of the policies and laws he has helped to frame and the land conservationists he has mentored.”
Since Doscher began his career at the Forest Society in October 1986, the Forest Society added nearly 35,000 acres to the constellation of Forest Reservations the organization now owns and manages. A fisherman whose fly rod is usually within reach wherever he travels, Doscher said he is particularly glad to have helped protect the Forest Society’s 2,100-acre Washburn Family Forest in Clarksville, which includes extensive frontage on the upper Connecticut River.
In addition, since Doscher’s start in 1986 the Forest Society protected more than 100,000 acres of land via more than 500 conservation easements on land owned by other individuals and agencies.
“I’m particularly proud of helping establish the Forest Society’s professional easement stewardship program to monitor those easements,” Doscher said. “It has become a national model for many of the more than 1,700 land trusts around the country,” he said.
Brian Hotz, the Forest Society’s current senior director of strategic projects/land protection, has been named the new Vice President of Land Conservation. Hotz has been working in land protection for two decades, and at the Forest Society since 1998. Prior to joining the Forest Society staff he was executive director of the Gathering Waters land trust in Wisconsin, and was with the Wisconsin chapter of The Nature Conservancy prior to that. He holds a masters in Conservation Planning from the University of Wisconsin and a bachelor’s degree from the University of Massachusetts. Hotz grew up on a Trustees of Reservations property on Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts, and today he and his family live in Warner.
“Brian's work ethic, vision, demonstrated ability to accomplish an extraordinary amount of land conservation and his dedication to the Forest Society and its mission over the last decade and a half make me confident that he will thrive in this role,” said Difley. “I’m confident that Brian can help our land protection department achieve the Forest Society’s long-term goals, while helping guide our easement stewardship department monitor our more than 700 conservation easements.”
“I am keenly aware of the expectations that come with the more than 100-year history of an organization like the Forest Society,” Hotz said. “I look forward to working with my colleagues to build on the conservation successes that Paul Doscher and others have achieved over time. It’s a pretty special opportunity.”
The Forest Society is a private, non-profit land trust and forestry organization established in 1901. It currently holds more than 750 conservation easements statewide permanently protecting more than 120,000 acres of New Hampshire’s landscapes. The Forest Society also owns 172 forest reservations constituting more than 52,000 acres in 105 New Hampshire communities.